


Amaranth

by sovereign thunder (old_gods_of_asgard)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Humor, M/M, Non-Canon Relationship, Romance, daily odd compliments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:17:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/old_gods_of_asgard/pseuds/sovereign%20thunder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a Daily Odd Compliment.</p><p>Tendo likes Yancy, Yancy likes Tendo, Raleigh likes making his older brother's life difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amaranth

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [不朽](https://archiveofourown.org/works/932621) by [dummybunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dummybunny/pseuds/dummybunny)



> I tried getting two different friends to beta this, but neither ever got back to me. I'm prone to mistakes so if you see any, please let me know.
> 
> [This](http://24.media.tumblr.com/568dd7edcda23b1bd3c607658188c63c/tumblr_mokba7Dbzn1qkliv0o1_1280.jpg) is the DOC I was inspired by/used. It's presented verbatim in the note that Yancy gives to Tendo, because it just kind of fit. There might be another part to this with the date because I'm a sucker for fluff and DOC, and because a title like "Amaranth" deserves more than just a one-shot.
> 
> edit: a friend just pointed this out to me: Bucket is intentional, I promise.

Yancy took several deep, almost painful breaths as he gripped the sink. 'You can do this, you can do this, you can do this,' he told himself. He _could_ do this and he _would_ do this and he would be better for it regardless of what Tendo's response would be.

Tendo's response. Of course, success hinged entirely upon the belief that, provided Yancy didn't blow it, Tendo would say yes. Yancy felt his stomach lurched at the thought of him saying 'no' that as Raleigh opened the bathroom door to check on him he spun around and sputtered out, "I can't do this. I can't. "

Raleigh took a second to catch his breath before jabbing a finger in Yancy's face. "I swear to god, I will cut you." He glowered. "I have it on good goddamn authority that he'll be saying yes and I swear if you fuck this up, I will cut you."

Yancy wasn't so much shaken by the threat as he was by what Raleigh said. “And on whose good goddamn authority do you have this?” Raleigh clammed up at that. “ _I knew it._ ”

“Look, Yance, please,” Raleigh let out a whining noise as he followed Yancy back into his bedroom. “I promise you, if you just man up, he will say yes. There's nothing else he _could_ say! Ask anyone!”

“I can't.” Yancy swallowed a stronger retort as he grabbed his jacket. Raleigh reached for it and missed grabbing the sleeve by mere inches; as he did so, he sputtered out, “ _Where_?”

“Out, okay? Just, out. I need some air. Call me if there's an emergency.” Yancy slipped his jacket on and stalked out their shared living quarters. He pulled the door shut behind him, hoping that Raleigh would take the hint and leave him be. Maybe it wasn't the best of ideas or the best of plans, but it was better than the alternative, and it was better than sitting in the Shatterdome stewing and waiting for a miracle. Maybe he'd get lucky and find a suitable one-night-stand at the bar.

Yancy plotted his course carefully to avoid running into either Raleigh – if he'd escaped the room – or Tendo, knowing the former would just chew him out all the way to Breakers and seeing the latter would result in him doing something _incredibly_ stupid.

Of course, Yancy was anything but lucky. In hindsight it was probably not a good idea to take a shortcut through the cafeteria; if Tendo wasn't working or studying, he was loading up on coffee to give him an attention boost. Yancy had to give him credit – he was nothing if not dedicated. He'd come along way from looking like a drowned rat when Stacker had dragged him in a couple of years back to help play head techie.

Even haggard and sleepless, with coffee and ink stains on his pants and bags under his eyes, Tendo was striking to Yancy. He wasn't in any better shape, of course, unless you counted that his jacket was clean and his hair wasn't mussed up. Yancy didn't know what it was about Tendo; to him, the man looked as beautiful as Christmas morning, all of the time.

“Oh,” Tendo licked his dried lips. That simple action alone threatened Yancy's current emotional stability. “What's up, Bucket? Is something wrong?” _Kind of,_ Yancy thought. He shook his head and opened his mouth to say something, but no words would come out. “are you..sure nothing's wrong? You look a little green-”

“I love your bowties.” Yancy's jaw hurt from the effort of pushing those words out. Tendo quirked a brow and he just stammered on. “I love them, a lot. They're all so...they're all so nice. They're like, uh, how princesses wear bows, in their hair. But yours are, yours are for...for your...neck.”

Yancy's mouth suddenly dried up and he swayed ever so slightly as Tendo raised both brows in surprise. “I...what?”

“I. I mean, uhm. Fuck.” The words hitched in the back of Yancy's throat; no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't pull out a good enough explanation. Instead he took three deep, terrified breaths, forced out, “Oh my **god** ,” turned tail and ran back the way he had come. There wasn't a point in trying to just walk it off – the sheer stupidity of his statement was smacking him around and it the hurt from embarrassment was felt physically. Jesus _fuck_ , he was an idiot.

He made it back to his and Raleigh's living quarters and found it locked and empty. He fell down onto his bed grateful for the sanctuary, and tried hard not to let out a bloodcurdling scream at his idiot brain and co-conspiratorial mouth.

Raleigh found him there a few hours later, lying on his stomach and looking shell shocked. “I am an idiot.”

“Yes, yes you are.”

“No, Raleigh, I mean I'm like. As far as idiots go, he's Archie Kennedy and I'm El Supremo.”

“...can you give me a cultural reference I understand?”

“Oh, fuck off, Raleigh.” Yancy pushed himself up into a sitting position, turning to face his brother in the door. “I'm an idiot.”

“We've established this.” Raleigh moved into the room towards Yancy's desk; as his brother rambled, he searched for paper and a pen.

“I mean, when I left I was gonna go. I was gonna go! Drinking, maybe go find someone to fuck. I didn't. I saw him, he had coffee, and he was just so damn fine. I just wanted to give him a compliment, right? It's like, whenever I see him him brain is all, “That is one good lookin' guy. Quick, say something dumb!” And I do, because I'm an idiot.” Raleigh pushed the pad of paper and pen into Yancy's hands. “What's this for?”

“You're gonna write to him.” Raleigh said. “Just a note. Just something, like, explaining and inviting him out.”

“I can't tell him now,” Yancy whined. “He knows. He knows I'm an idiot. He won't want to.”

“You're fucking retarded.” Raleigh crossed his arms and looked quite a bit like their father. “He knows you're an idiot, but _he likes you._ ” Yancy's face scrunched up in confusion, and Raleigh started mocking him. “ _And on whose good goddamn authority do you have this?_ Golly gee whiz, I don't know. I found his trapper keeper in the hallway and started rifling through it.”

“You're an _asshole._ ” Yancy glowered at him. “You're a fucking douche. Why didn't you just say that?”

“Uhm, gosh I don't know,” Raleigh put a fist under his chin in his best impression of _The Thinker._ “Oh, no, I totally do! Because Tendo's one of the best friend's I've ever had, and when someone tells you a secret you're supposed to keep it that way?”

“You just told me! You could have told me before, how is he gonna know?”

“Oooh, trust me, he's going to know. I'm going to _suffer_ for this, so get to writing, dick.”

“I don't know what to write.”

“Write what you just told me. The whole 'this person is good looking, say something stupid' thing kind of works for you. Maybe offer to take him to get some real food.”

Yancy nodded, already starting to write a note to Tendo. Raleigh's revelation had given him a boost in confidence – not much, but enough that he wanted to get this done before he chickened out again. “Can you give this to him for me?”

Raleigh rolled his eyes, but took the note and read it over. “I guess I have to because you'll wimp out and tear it up or some shit.” Yancy grabbed his pillow and chucked it at Raleigh's head as his brother fled from the room.

 

* * *

 

Tendo yawned and stretched out just enough to get comfortable in his little nook. He had a room by himself and it wasn't very large, but it was comfortable enough for just him. He stripped of his dirty clothes and made a mental note to wash them when he woke up; as he loosened his bow tie, he remembered what Yancy had said and started snickering. “Dork,” he huffed out to himself, although that was painful to do considering that he had more than just simple, friendly thoughts about the younger man.

Younger. Pah. Yancy was only two years younger than he was. And a dweeb, besides. A very handsome dweeb, with great hair and a killer body and the most _amazing_ ass, but a dweeb nonetheless. Tendo let out a grunt of frustration as he pulled on a musty old t-shirt and his sleeping pants. Who was he kidding; Yancy was a stone-cold _fox_. He just wished he'd had the balls to kiss him in the cafeteria, preferably before he'd gone on his tangent.

Tendo resigned himself to defeat once more and fell down, face first onto his uncomfortable bed. When he did so, however, his face landed directly on a piece of paper he hadn't noticed laying on his pillow. Tendo willed his muscles to work with him as he sat up on his knees and picked the salmon-pink paper up.

“ _Tendo,_

_I really have no idea how to explain the verbal throw up I spat out at you today. It's been a really complicated...year. Yeah, year, we'll go with that. God. What I mean to say is this: It's hard to act cool in front of you because whenever I see you, my brain is like, “This person is good looking, say something stupid.” And I'm like “Awesome idea, brain.” And then I say something stupid because I'm an idiot._

_I hope my incoherent fuckery didn't scare you off. I would love to take you out, on a proper two-person date at a really nice eating establishment. You know, they kind that makes food, and not cafeteria slop? And when I bring you back here we can even have a proper make out session, and I can touch your butt and everything. Because that booty is fly._

_Oh my **god** , there I go again. I swear I'm not like this all the time. Please, just let me have a chance._

_Yours (I hope?),_

_Yancy.”_


End file.
